The Prevailing of Light
by Secrets Of A Broken Angel
Summary: AU from RotS. Anakin and his family fighting together against the Empire before and during the original trilogy. Rated T for some violence. Review Please!


Anakin cradled his newborn son in his arms, marveling at the miralcle he had witnessed only a few hours before. The birth had been painful, almost as bad as the visions had predicted, but Padme had endured through it. His wife was now sleeping, completely worn out from the event, still holding their daughter close.

Twins! One baby had been blessing enough, but when the med-droid had announced that there were two babies, the elation had been unimaginable, greater than any Ani had ever experienced before. The babies were perfect, and they were his, and for a while he had thought that his heart was going to burst for all the amount of love and light inside of it.

Luke and Leia Skywalker, one boy with golden-blonde hair and sky-blue eyes, and one girl with hair as dark as Padme's and eyes that were already beginning to darken into ones that would be just as beautiful as her mother's.

The birth had not been kept secret, Obi-Wan and Yoda both knew that Anakin had broken the code, had witnessed the birth of his children, but due to recent unfortunate events, they were overlooking it, and Yoda had even granted him the rank of Master.

The Chancellor had revealed himself to be the Sith Lord that the Jedi had been searching for, in vain, for over a decade. The man had taken over the Senate, the Republic, and had established an Empire with himself on the throne. Then, in a shocking move, he had given the order to eradicate the Jedi. Many of them were now dead, not even the younglings that had barely lived at all were spared in the monsterous act. Besides himself, Obi-Wan, and Yoda, only Anakin's padawan, Ashoka, were known to still be alive. The Jedi were all but extinct, a highly endangered species.

The other reason Anakin had even been reprimanded for his actions brought a great deal of worry to him and Padme. The twins midichlorian count was almost as high as their father's, and Yoda had forseen that the small, precious, and utterly defenseless babies were going to play a tremendous role in bringing the new Empire chrashing down.

It had already been decided that the small band would head to Tatooine and into hiding as soon as Padme was cleared to leave. There the twins would grow up and be trained as Jedi.

Anakin grimaced slightly, Padme had not been happy with that plan in the least. She had been furious to see her beloved Republic fall, and had at first adamant about returning to the senate to oppose the Sith Lord that she had placed her faith in. Master Yoda had eventually managed to break down her resolve and make her see sense by convincing her that the lives of her then unborn children depended on them getting to safety as soon as possible. Then, Padme had gone into early labor.

Anakin was brought out of his musings by Luke shifting in his arms, "What is it, my son? Are you hungry?". Luke just stared at him, and Anakin carefully used the Force to search his little one's feelings, and realized almost immediately that the boy was cold. Anakin walked quickly to a closet that sat in the corner of the room and pulled down a blanket that he wrapped around his son with a tenderness few knew that he had. He felt relief when he felt an innocent contentment radiate from him, and he chuckled when the thought crossed his mind that it hadn't taken very long for him to take up the role of the concerned father.

"I love you so much, Luke," Anakin whispered, "You and your mother and your sister. I promise I will always keep you safe, I'll never let anything bad happen to you." Luke yawned in response and slowly fell asleep, snuggling closer to his daddy's chest as he did.

Anakin felt her presence before she entered the room, "Hello, Snips."

Ashoka smiled at him, "Hey, Skyguy. How are the babies doing?"

"They're wonderful, they're, they're just perfect," Anakin answered, letting the awe that filled him slip into his voice.

"I can already tell that you are going to be one of those overindulgent, overprotective fathers, Master," Ashoka said, humor and happiness coloring her tone, something Anakin was greatful for, his young padawan had not been happy for a while now.

"Really, how?", he asked, trying to keep her spirits from falling again.

"Jedi perception," she quipped back, her tone teasing.

"I suppose I will be, I want to give them the universe already," Anakin conceded, and then his contenence became far more serious, "Ashoka, I need you to promise me something."

"Anything, Skyguy," Ashoka said without hesitation.

"You know how good you are at saving my life?" Anakin asked, and then ignored the fact that his padawan nodded with a smirk on her face. "I want you to focus that talent on something else, I want you to protect Luke and Leia at all costs, sacrificing me if necessary."

Shock was prominent on the young girl's face for a moment but then she nodded slowly, "I promise, Master," she said, understanding in her voice.

"Thank you, Snips. I owe you one."

"You owe me more than one, Master Yoda just got done chewing me out for not informing the counsel of your marriage to Padme," she told him, her smile betraying that he was already forgiven.

Anakin smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, thanks for that, by the way."

"You're welcome," Ashoka bit her lip for a moment, "Can I hold him?", she asked tenatively, and Ani could tell that she was afraid he would refuse her.

"Of course you can, Snips. After all, you are their sister," Anakin assured, handing Luke over and setting him gently into his padawan's arms. Then he watched as her face lit up as she observed the sleeping child.

What he had said was true, for a while now he had considered Ashoka to be a surrogate daughter to him, and once she had disovered his little secret, Padme had grown close to her as well. Anakin had trained her harder than most other masters trained their apprentices, ensuring that she could defend herslf with ease, despite his protectiveness of her on their missions. That training was what enabled her to fight her way back to his side when the clones had turned on them.

Their relationship was not common among the Jedi Order, and not encouraged either, and while Anakin understood the practicalities of why that was, he did not apply the rule-suggestion to Ashoka's relationship with them. Of course, Anakin didn't exactly apply most of the counsel's rules. It didn't matter anymore of course, the counsel had been dissolved, with most of its members dead it was useless anyway, the Jedi temple invaded and destroyed.

Ani turned his head from Ashoka to the doorway as Obi-Wan and Yoda walked in, and he could tell right away that something was wrong.

"We can't afford to delay here any longer, we must leave now. I'm afraid our position has been betrayed," Obi-Wan told them urgently, and Anakin tensed.

"Within the hour, clone troops, here, will be," Yoda provided, "Worry not, Skywalker, get away safely, we will."

Anakin relaxed as the relief those words carried washed through him, "Obi-Wan, can you carry Leia? I don't wish to awaken Padme quite yet."

"Of course, Anakin," the older man replied, carefully removing the baby girl from her mother's arms. Anakin picked Padme up with ease and held her so that she would not be jostled awake as they walked. "Let's go," Obi-Wan said, "Senator Organa has prepared us a ship that will get us to Tatooine undetected."

The group moved out of the hospital room and through the large medical center untill they came out of it through the exit closest to the main ship port. Anakin's senses were on high alert the entire walk, ready to react to any situation. Fortunately, they reached the hanger bay that contained their transport without incident. While everyone else quickly filed onto the ship, Anakin stared at it incredeously, there was no way the bucket of bolts in front of him was getting all the way to Ani's home planet.

"She will get us where we need to go, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, reading his thoughts, "Now come on, we have to go."

Anakin quickly climbed up the ramp and into the ship, where he gently set Padme down on a bed inside one of the cabins. He observed Obi-Wan putting Leia down in a bassinet that had somehow been placed aboard, and then Ashoka setting Luke down next to his sister.

Leaving his wife and children in the hands of his friends, Anakin moved to he cockpit and started up the ship's engines.

"Master Anakin!", Threepio's voice made Ani jump, where had that droid come from?

"Yes Threepio, what is it?"

"I just wanted to express my relief that you and Mistress Padme are in good health," the golden droid said, "Artoo and I were very worried."

"Thanks Threepio, but we're not out of this yet, we have to get out of here before the clone amry arrives," Anakin said, knowing that he had just prevented his protocol droid from going on a long, drawn-out tangeant about how they needed to be more cautious because one day the stress of their actions was going to cause Threepio to burn out.

"Oh dear," the droid fretted, "I must go warn Artoo."

With that he left Anakin to a peaceful quiet that would be rare in the coming years as the twins grew. The Jedi took hold of the ship's throttle and eased it out of the port, breathing a sigh of relief when it didn't fall apart ar blow up as it entered the atmosphere of Alderaan. As the ship entered space, he felt a dark presence suddenly emminate from the planet below. They had gotten out just in time, Sidious himself had come for them. Even out of the piece of junk ship's limited viewport, Ani could see the beginnings of a blockade forming.

Unwilling to take any risks, he quickly set the coordinates for Tattooine and activated the hyperdrive unit. '_Please, please work_'he silently begged the machiene, he really didn't want to contemplate the consequences of being stranded nearby over a dozen starships that were all set on eliminating those he cared his relief, the hunk of junk shot forward into hyperspace, toward safety and realitive freedom.

The lives of his family, because that was what they all truely were, were not going to be easy, they would be difficult, dangerous, and it was going to take everything they had to get through this dark time that degraded everything they held dear, but endure they would, together. The Order may have been destroyed, but the Jedi would forever live on, and one day they would rise again to bring peace back to the galaxy.


End file.
